Aletheian Civil War
Brief History The Aletheian Civil War lasted for nearly twenty years and during that time destroyed all of the previous nation-states in the Lethi and surrounding regions but led to the rise of the new Aletheian state. = Prelude to Conflict There was concern about a break down in the Ruthellian state even before the 1904 reforms. The southern border regions of the nation were in near constant protest and riot beginning in 1899, the newly conquered steppe regions on the fringes of the nation of Ashketova and Mashkent were threatening open rebellion even with resistance groups running rampant in the countryside, and the elections in 1902 solidified the fact that nationalist and ethnocentric parties were still vastly popular in all the Ruthellian communes. The government in Holkiskstad was simultaneously considered highly effective and immensely unpopular. The start of the Great War on the Rumian continent combined with Antetand’s surprising levels of success united most of the western Lethi peoples under their hatred for Antetand and galvanized the nation’s response to join the war. However, most of the nomadic peoples (the Mashkents, Ashkets, Ulbatanis, and most of the population east of the Lethian Spine) were not overly supportive of joining the war as they saw it as a way to ignore the domestic issues going on in the nation and were more concerned with those and the looming threat of the fairly powerful Ashketovan Horde, Red Horde, Galgamid Khaganate, and other nomadic forces. Antetand Sparks the Fire 1908 saw the cataclysmic defeat of the Aletheian Army at the battle Horschorn Forest which was for many of the fringe elements in Eastern Aletheia finally enough. The Eastern Communes demanded an immediate armistice and withdrawal from the conflict. The government in Holkiskstad refused and the East went into full panic mode as massive armies from the surrounding hordes began to pour across the Aletheian border. These hordes had been provided arms, training, and tactical intelligence from Antetandi spies and black operations teams and promised Tandi support during an invasion of Aletheia. Simultaneously, Antetandi espionage elements had entrenched themselves in separatist groups in all of the border regions and similarly promised military support if the groups declared independence. While that support would never manifest, Antetand was successful in starting mass rebellion all across the Aletheian frontier. Aletheia was forced to immediately withdraw its armed forces from the war to handle the rebellions. By the time the army could be redeployed however the hordes and rebels had seized nearly all of the steppe and southern drylands. The Civil War Begins While the official story as to what exactly marked the start of the Aletheian Civil War or who is directly responsible varies greatly from historian to historian the following is the official story supported by the Aletheian Government. While conflict had been going on for nearly two years, the Civil War only officially began on September 7th, 1909, when Derik Hellinson and the Relik Party declared a vote of no confidence in the government in Holkiskstad and ordered the arrest of the old guard elements from the Ruthellian era whom they blamed for the chain of events that had led to the current state of the nation. The Relik Party and their allies got within three blocks of the Rathaus (parliament building) before loyalist elements of the army cut them off. Official sources claim the Old Government were the ones to fire first. Over the course of the following months the nation quickly divided between supporting the Relik Party, the Old Government, and those who simply wished to see their state independent. At this time the Aletheian Army of the North, code named Project North, seized control of the entirety of the Perkunis Mountain range and shut down all travel through and barricaded themselves in.